~ Musings on Authorship & Inspiration

The All Important First Step in Self-Publishing

Brief background: A few days ago, Mick, an illustrator from Australia, was kind enough to leave a comment on my bio page, in which he mentioned the somewhat bewildering array of information out there regarding self-publishing and whether to do it all yourself, or outsource it all–or which road between the two options to follow. Here’s my take:

The first step you need to take is back.

If you’re thinking of self-pubbing, then step back. Step away from your project, from the minutiae of research on the how to-s and the what to-s and all that important stuff.

Survey the territory–starting with YOU!

Once you’ve got some distance, look around, at your circumstances, your budget and your resources. As importantly, look at who you are and how you like to work. Are you someone who likes control? Or do you prefer someone else to deal with the details and nitty-gritty stuff, so you just see, and approve or seek changes, at key steps in the project? This will give you some answers about which route to take.

Other factors worth considering

Look at your time availability and your timelines for getting the project completed. Look at your skill sets. What is worth learning, and what is worth leaving to the experts?

Taking anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours mulling over this question will save you time and a good deal of wheel-spinning over the course of the project (and other projects to come). You may need to skim-research the mechanics of the process, asking yourself how difficult a given thing (e.g. generating e-book formatted files, publishing to KDP direct, or uploading to CreateSpace) happens to be and if you want to learn to do it yourself. But, do this initial research more by way of a preliminary graze of what’s out there, all the while holding the awareness of who you are and how you work in your consciousness.

Once you’ve figured out which of the routes is more appealing, you can start honing in on your actual research–regarding how-to-s, who to hire for those pieces of the process you hope to outsource, or which reputable organizations provide “full meal deal” packages that appeal to you.

And remember, it’s a forgiving process in many ways. If it turns out you need to change your approach along the way–you find yourself hating the details of this or that aspect of the process, or you find you want more control over being able to update or make changes to your work–it’s easy enough to change directions and adjust your method as you go.

My response to Mick’s comment, in which I talk a little bit about the specific choices I made, based on my own responses to the above questions, is here.

I’ve been having a devil of a time getting WordPress to take my comments lately – it won’t take any of the passwords that ought to apply. But I’ll give it another try.
When I decided I couldn’t live long enough to find an agent and/or traditional publisher, I did spend some time researching. I investigated Lulu and CreateSpace because I knew I wanted print books. And I knew if I wanted to publish on Kindle, I had to go with KDP. Then I discovered Smashwords and decided to give that a try, also. I am one of those people who likes to control things and do it my way. I even do my own covers, since I learned how to draw termites using the Word drawing tools! Don’t know what I would do if I needed a cover that doesn’t have termites on it, although I made a try on my freebie The Blessing of Krozem. I sure wouldn’t pay somebody else to do a cover on a free novelette! So self-publishing has worked out very well for me. It’s just the promotion part that is difficult – how to get people interested enough to actually read your books.

Frustrating re the comments (I occasionally have that with blogger/blogspot as well–always an annoyance when you’ve just typed up a comment and it disappears). I’m like you, Lorinda–and if I could, I would do my own covers too, because I do like having control over the process. I had figured that you had some previous drawing experience and had the talent, given that your termite covers look good (as does the Blessings of Krozem!).

But alas, the time it would take me to learn how to do would just take too much away from writing, editing, etc. Everything else, basically. But it does mean that for free giveaways, I still have to pay for a cover–and that for low-sales items (i.e. short story anthologies, which are by FAR my lowest sellers), I have to hunt for the most affordable covers and even then usually carry a loss for a while on them…

But I have to agree–the challenge is getting people to read the books (and review them). Speaking of which, I will, of course and absolutely, post a review once I’ve finished “The Monster…” !

I have no artistic training and I cannot do figure drawing to save my neck! That is, I’ve tried and an artist friend of mine told me the results were embarrasingly bad! Through practice, I got pretty good with faces, however. At least, they kind of capture the essence of the character I’m trying to draw. But insects are like legos – they have recyclable body parts. You can reposition the body and then add the legs in different configurations! I’m glad you liked the Krozem cover. I’m not crazy about the spirit being Wagmi – he doesn’t stand out enough. But it serves. I like the background pretty well.
“Monster” is a bit of a shocker, you’ll find. I got my inspiration from a dream. I’ll be looking forward to your review!
I’ve decided patience is what self-publishing needs. You can’t expect people to find your books and latch onto them immediately. It’s kind of a tortoise-and-hare situation. Keep plodding along and maybe you’ll win out in time.
I am training myself to copy my comments before I hit “Post.”

Heh–I’ve maxed out the “replies” on the other one, so I’m responding here. I must agree re comments. I try to remember to copy them before I post. But of course, it’s the ones I forget to copy that I lose (slowly, the reinforcement will no doubt sink in).

And yes, you’re absolutely right. Patience is a must. Even if, these days, you can publish almost overnight, once the book is out there, it takes time for people to take notice, and for the books to connect with their audience. If the work is niche, then the audience is that much harder to find… As you say, persistence, and continuing to write, to polish, to publish and to promote are key to the long term growth of that audience!

Thanks – useful post! My head’s been whirring all last night and today with project-y stuff and, combined with the real life worrying of the generator outside, has given me a headache and I need to take a step back for a sec, as you suggest.

Great covers on ‘Persephone’s Library’ and ‘Don Coyote de la Merika’ by the way.

Thanks so much, secretsdaughter, for stopping by and commenting! I must agree–the cover designer did a wonderful job with those two covers… a very talented designer based in Scotland, Kit Foster.

I’m glad the post was helpful. I suspect many people know that this is an essential step in the process, but it’s easy to forget, when you get all caught up in the details and researching this, then that, then the other…

I look forward to following the progress of your poetry project as it emerges and evolves–it looks to be a lovely undertaking and I can’t wait to see more.

I published my collection of short stories, The First Time using a self publishing company at a cost of £400. For my money I received the following: the formatting and distribution of my manuscript to 200 ebook publishers (it has only appeared on approximately 10-15 sites thus far) and the design of a book cover. I’m considering doing more of the work for my next project myself.

Thanks for sharing your story. I found it straightforward to publish to KDP and also to format toe book for Smashwords (they have instructions). They will place your book with a number of e-book retailers at no cost (they just take a cut from the sales). I’ve been happy with both these services (there’s sometimes a delay for getting books in with the e-book retailers through Smashwords, but this is usually because of the ways in which the retailers do it, and has little do do with Smashwords). I often find what the services are charging to be a little high, particularly since I don’t find it all that difficult to do much of the formatting etc. myself… A bit of a learning curve, but not intrinsically challenging. That’s why I chose to shift it so my main expenditures are in the arena of cover art and editing, if possible.

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